Do you measure your goal achieving time? Are you always stressed about not getting enough done? When did you last look at how you spend your day? Does your time investment match your plan to reach your goals?
Great Sales People Balance Goal Achieving Time with Stress Relieving Time
Two Kinds Of Time
Many years ago I heard Earl Nightingale speak on time management. I’ll never forget the way he defined time. Earl said there is only two kinds of time: “goal achieving time” and “stress relieving time”. And we need to not only balance those times but also not confuse them. Goal achieving time is intentional to what needs doing to be successful. Right now I’m writing this blog post in goal achieving time. Stress relieving time is “time off.” That’s the time we take to pause and refresh. Last evening Lois and I watched a movie during stress relieving time.
How Do You Divide Your Time?
We all need to have fun. In fact when I was helping my daughter to schedule her time when she was in high school, I made sure in addition to all the activities she was involved in she put “have fun” on her calendar. The more ambitious our goals the more time we need to commit to achieving them. For great salespeople, primary goal achieving activities are setting appointments, driving to meet with customers, sales calls, prospecting, and follow up. Some secondary goal achieving time activities are completing sales call summaries, filling out expense reports, intra-company meetings and planning. These secondary goal achieving activities increase the effectiveness of the primary activities. Great salespeople measure how they spend their goal achieving time each day.
Take A Goal Achieving Time Inventory
For the next month, monitor how you spend your goal achieving time. I track four categories: Face-to-face selling time, travel time to sales calls, other customer contact activities like sending email or phoning and all other non customer contact work related activities. I plan for a 60 – 40 split between customer contact activities and non-contact activities. How is your time divided? Are your activities sufficient to reach your goals? Can you minimize the non-customer contact activities?
All Work And No Play …
You remember the old saying: “All work and no play, makes Jack a dull boy!” Stress relieving time is as important as goal achieving time. As healthy salespeople we need to enjoy time with family and friends. Relaxing with a hobby or playing sports gives us time to refresh and reload with energy for the work ahead. The joys of stress relieving time are the stories we can share with customers and prospects developing and keeping good relationships. Telling how you caught the large stripped bass when fishing with your daughter or relating how you felt when you watched your son pitch a no-hitter can create rapport. Great salespeople meet the challenge of keeping a healthy work-life balance between goal achieving and stress relieving time.
This Time Only Happens Once
When this minute passes you will never have it to use again. Make the most of it whether you are chasing the big sale or enjoying a quiet moment with someone you love.
To learn more sales secrets see Chapter Eighteen, Setting Your Goals, in Secrets of the Softer Side of Selling. For even more sales help, join our FREE Sales Club! “See” you next week.
Good selling!
Don Crawford & Lois Carter Crawford